Today, many elderly Americans who cannot afford the ongoing cost of home care, assisted living or nursing home care are faced with the decision of whether to use their homes as a source of funding to pay for care.
In the United States, many seniors have significant equity in their homes and since traditional Medicare does not pay for assisted living or personal care at home, using one’s home to finance long – term care can be a good option.
Even though there are so many ways to generate revenue from a home to pay for care, not every route is appropriate for all seniors or is necessarily a sound economic decision. The four relevant options are renting the home, selling the home, getting a reverse mortgage, and getting a home equity line of credit.
However, have it in mind that all these options are not available to all homeowners. Howbeit, the best course of action will surely depend on one’s family situation and in what location one will receive care. However, Long term care in the United States for seniors can be quite expensive.
According to reports, in-home health aide services cost around $20/hour. Seniors who require round the clock assistance and/or supervision will have to pay more.
In the United States, living in one – room ALF cost the average resident $3,628 per month, while nursing home cost an average resident $7,698 per month. Approximately half of all individuals who live to be 65 years or older will require long term care at some point, and the average cost of this care is $138,000.
Irrespective of the cost, selling a home to pay for care is not an option applicable to everyone. Most notably, it is not applicable to those individuals who wish to continue living at home and receive home care. But note that for individuals who are moving into assisted living or nursing homes and have no intention of returning to their homes, this option can make financial sense.
It would be hard to search specifically for properties owned by nursing home residents in the United States. It is hard to search for properties by age the same way it is hard to search on religion or nationality, and this is a good thing. Discrimination or targeting a population in housing is never ideal.
In the United States, age is a protected class and if you are targeting age as the primary variable you are searching for when looking to acquire properties, then you are most likely breaking federal law and will be looked upon suspiciously.
But a real estate agent, depending on area, usually has access to County Records where they can pull up the whole neighbourhood and line them up by year purchased. Note that they can identify the original owners and those who have been in their homes for over 30 years. They can also see if those owners borrowed against their equity since they first purchased the home.
Finding a property anywhere in the US can be done similarly regardless of state as sellers and real – estate agencies tend to work alike regardless of location. Note that the best ways for finding property to buy include: websites, real estate agencies, driving through neighbourhoods, newspaper classifieds (very popular, especially in the Midwest), and personal contacts.
5 Ways to Find Properties to Buy Owned By Nursing Home Residents
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Websites
In the US, 77 percent of those looking for properties to buy leverage the Internet to find it. However, most property websites (including those of realtors) tend to work on a state, rather than national level. So the best option is to search online for websites that are specific to your state of choice.
While sites like Craigslist and even eBay are gaining in popularity when it comes to buying or selling property, more established websites include:
- realtor.com
- homeseekers.com
- zillow.com
- trulia.com
- forsalebyowner.com
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Real estate agents
In the United States, real estate agents are expected to be licensed. This also means that they need to become familiar with all the rules and regulations regarding the buying and selling of property in their state, and need to pass an exam proving their knowledge.
Therefore, when you decide to hire a real estate agent, you are hiring an expert that is well experienced to help you with buying property in your state. But have it in mind that this is not cheap and commissions often run high (at a rate of 6 percent).
Even though in many agreements the seller pays for the commission, the argument goes that the buyer is always responsible for this payment to the real estate broker.
The notion behind it is that the commission is included in the sales price of the property. Note that in cases where the seller did not sign an agreement to pay a commission, the price of the house is often lower. Nonetheless, the buyer will then have to cover this cost.
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Personal Contacts
If you have already made some contacts in your new home neighbourhood, it is worth asking them if they know of any homes with the specifics you want that might be going for sale soon.
Note that this uses the same logic as that of driving through neighbourhoods, since most seniors or home owners will often tell friends and family of their intention to sell their homes before contacting a real estate agent. Aside the fact that you get to be one of the first to see the property, if you decide to buy, you also get to skip the real estate agent fee.
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Newspaper Classifieds
In the United States, local or state newspapers are full of property listings that are added either by sellers themselves or real estate agents. Note that to get the freshest listings; you have to make sure to check the property classifieds on Sundays.
As this is the day with the highest circulation for most local newspapers, this is when new listings usually appear. In addition, to make sure that you get to view the house before anyone else does, contact the seller or real estate agent immediately (many work on Sundays because of this), or first thing Monday morning.
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Driving Through Neighbourhoods
If there is a neighbourhood you like, then it is advisable you drive through it to see if there are any homes for sale there. Just like the personal contact route, most potential property sellers will test the market before advertising their house.
They tend to do so by putting a ‘for sale’ sign on their house around one month before contacting a real estate agent or advertising their home by other means. The logic goes that this is a potential way of selling property quickly and easily before having to hire a real estate agent.
Most counties have a Clerk or Recorder who is tasked with keeping land and property records. The records are often available on their websites that have all of the legal information including the owner.
Note that there are ways that you might be able to determine the approximate age of the owner from those records including sale date or quit claim deeds. However, be very careful with these records because although they are usually public record, there are laws to protect people from misuse of the information.